He Knew
by PapayaK
Summary: Missing Scene from the beginning of Lost City Part 1 : Jack knew exactly how the day was likely to shake out, but crosswords were so much more entertaining than considering your own mortality.


Title: He knew

Author: PapayaK

E-mail: papaya. Missing Scene

Spoilers/Season: Missing scene for 721 Lost City, tiny ones for Fifth Race and Abyss

Special Thanks to: for the transcripts!!

Summary: What happened between Jack hanging up on Daniel and the elevator doors opening…

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The Lost City Part 1

Transcript by: Deanna Moll-Landry!

Shot opens with a crossword puzzle. It's on a mirror. Jack is shaving. He wipes the steam off of the mirror with his hand, then a towel. He's looking at the puzzle. He's thinking real hard to find the answers, obviously unsuccessfully. His cell phone rings, he tries to ignore it while finishing shaving. It keeps ringing. He cuts himself by his nose.

JACK: Ow! (Looks at his finger for blood. Puts his razor in the water as the phone rings again) (Answers phone.) What?!

DANIEL: (In his lab or office) Jack! I've been translating the ancient writing in the collinade SG-2 discovered on P3X-439 ...

JACK: (Thru phone) Daniel, I'll be there in half an hour...

Daniel: It talks about a library of knowledge Jack. I think the monument contains a repository of the Ancients.

Jack: (Continues shaving with the phone to his ear, touching his face which still have shaving creme.) Repository you say.

Daniel: Yeah. That thing that grabbed your head, made you talk crazy, nearly killed you.

Jack: (Changes direction of his shaving, going against the grain! LOL!) It sounds like we should stay away then.

Daniel: Well, considering what we know now, we should be able to find another way to access the information. I mean, Sam's been able to use Tokra crystals to find a way to transfer all kinds of different energy. (Jack hears him babbling along, and looks at the phone. He sees the shaving cream, and puts the phone in the water to wipe the cream off of it. Daniel is heard, still talking, but breaking up as he dips the phone in the water. Then he RINSES the phone. We should go there as soon as possible.

Jack: Yeah?

Daniel: So?

Jack: I'll be there in half an hour.

Daniel: Ok, bye ...

Jack: (Continues shaving, he's almost finished) No, no, no, wait. Don't hang up. I need a seven-letter word.

Daniel: I told Sam I wouldn't help you.

Jack: Well, then this will be the one thing she doesn't know. Up, down, charmed, blank.

Daniel: (With NO hesitation to think about it) Strange.

Jack: (Not getting that Daniel gave him the answer ... I think he thinks Daniel called him strange!) Yeah. Well thanks anyway.

Daniel: (Thru the phone as Jack takes it away from his ear) No the word you're looking for... (Jack hangs up)

**He knew.**

**Colonel Jack O'Neill knew exactly what a 'repository' was.**

**He knew.**

**It hit him as he stared into the mirror listening to Daniel prattle on about crystals just how this day was likely to shake out.**

**The thought wearied him.**

**But crossword puzzles were so much more entertaining than considering your own mortality.**

**As he dressed for the day, he couldn't help but run through all the possible permutations the current intel could provide. After so many missions, it was reflex really. Unfortunately, most of them ended with his head in that thing, and no Thor in sight.**

**He grabbed the crossword on the way out the door. 23 Across, atomic weight of Boron… he had to think on that one a while as he absentmindedly drove up to the complex. It was such a beautiful sunny morning outside the mountain. Beryllium was nine; Bromine - seventy-nine. Boron was ten! He jotted it down as he held the paper against the steering wheel.**

**He knew their main objective would be to keep the repository out of the hands of Anubis. And as long as they made sure to destroy it after… that should ensure the ugly snake-head got no part of anything.**

**He made a mental note to put explosives on that thing first chance he got. The last one didn't work anymore after it had dumped its load in his brain, but that was no guarantee this one would be the same. Everybody knows you don't get too far by making assumptions.**

**He had no doubt that Daniel was right: Carter could figure out a way to get at the info they needed safely, without any head grabbing involved. But she would need time for the 'safely' part, and Jack didn't believe for one minute Anubis would give them that time.**

**Need. They needed the weapons. They needed the info on the Lost City. They needed time.**

**They would take what they could get.**

**Given the very probable facts, Jack knew the choice they would likely be faced with. There would be no choice, not for him. He'd done it before. He could do it again if it came to that. There was no way he would allow any of his team to take that burden, that risk. Of all of them he was the most 'dispensable.'**

**He mentally shied away from the 'other' reason: they were his kids, for cryin' out loud, his friends, his family. They were the people he loved most in the world. No, if anyone would do it, it wouldn't be one of them. He would protect them. He couldn't do otherwise.**

**He sighed.**

**The Asgard hadn't been around for awhile so he wouldn't make any assumptions there either. If this was to be how his silver cord was severed, so be it.**

**He smiled grimly. How many times had he faced his own death? For that matter, how many times had he died? Usually he dealt with it by not dealing with it. Somehow this was different. There was so much more than his life at stake.**

**If things shook out like he expected, he knew it would be rough on his team. The waiting would be the worst. He already knew what each of their individual reactions would be.**

**He sat listening to the engine tick as it cooled in the parking lot.**

**Daniel, ever the optimist, would try to convince both of them that everything would be fine.**

**Teal'c would be strong through it all. Teal'c was even more laconic than he was when it came to these things. He hoped T knew how much he relied on that strength.**

**Carter… Jack sighed. He so did _not _want to think about her feelings or his own.**

**She would try…**

**Given the opportunity he knew she would reach out to him and he sincerely hoped she did. She never seemed to accept that, regulations or not, he would always be there for her. He caught himself at the 'always.' Changed it to 'as long as he was around…' Either way, he would respect the boundaries she placed.**

**Well, he couldn't do much to protect them from their own feelings. All he could do there was try to set them at ease. Show them – show her - he was okay with it, whether he really was or not.**

**His eyes focused on a passing SF who was trying not to stare at him, sitting motionless in his truck. How long ago had he arrived, he wondered?**

**What time was it?**

**It was time to go. He was half an hour late, they'd be impatient…**

**As he reached for his jacket on the seat beside him, he saw the crossword lying forgotten on the passenger seat. He reached for it and flipped his pencil around to erase. At least he could make her smile one more time…**

SCENE: Cheyenne Mountain Complex.

SGC Elevator. Jack is still doing the crossword. An Airman (Martin Wood's Cameo) is looking over his shoulder at the puzzle. Jack looks the airman in the eyes, and the airman shakes his head, and looks away. The doors open, the airman quickly walks out of the elevator. Jack sees his team standing at the elevator, Sam looks pissed with her hands on her hips, Teal'c is his usual stoic self with his hands behind his back, Daniel is shaking his head, looking at his watch, tapping it to make sure it's still working.

Jack: How long have you been waiting there?

Daniel: You said half an hour, an hour ago.

Sam: General Hammond's waiting. (Jack walks up to Sam, and with a grin on his face, hands her the puzzle.)

Jack: Excuse me.

Sam: The fate of the world is hanging in the balance and you've been sitting in your truck finishing this?

Jack: I believe it was double or nothing.

Sam: Ok. 23 across, the atomic weight of boron. Answer is ten.

Jack: Yes?

Sam: You wrote the word fat.

Jack: And your point? (Takes it roughly from her hands)

END

Ecclesiastes 12:6


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